AWFJ’s Men We Love Awards 2008

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists presents its first-ever bouquet of Men We Love Awards.

We’ve polled our members and, this year, were honoring twelve outstanding male colleagues who have shown consistent appreciation and respect for our organization, and helped us to reach our goals during the past year.

In turn, we wish to show them our appreciation by shouting out “We Love You” to (in alphabetical order):

Jay Andrew Allen, for his invaluable assistance in establishing our website (and helping us bounce back from the occasional crash or two).

Jurgen Fauth, who has offered endless hours of expertise in the creation of www.AWFJ.org, and covers us consistently in his own writings at WorldFilm.About.com and JurgenFauth.com.

Jonathan Gray, Esq., for his savvy legal (and other) advice as one of our earliest volunteers on our Board of Advisors.

Dave Kehr, who hosted a wonderfully stimulating and meaningful web discussion on DaveKehr.com regarding the AWFJ Top 100 Films list.

Glenn Kenny, who has not only covered our events, but also served up serious (and, yes, sometimes funny) reflections about AWFJ at Premiere.com.

Richard Pena, who joined our Board of Advisors with unquestioning support.

David Poland, for spreading the word on Movie City News that AWFJ exists and matters, and for his honesty and directness in sharing his opinions with us.

Paul Power, for honoring AWFJ with inclusion in Museum of Modern Art Film Department events and proudly announcing to the world the appointment of MoMA Associate Film Curator Sally Berger to our Board of Advisors.

Chuck Tryon, an assistant professor of film and media at Fayetteville State University whom weve never met, but who discovered AWFJ and has linked to our Website periodically from his The Chutry Experiment, delivering big boosts to our online stats.

Stu VanAirsdale, whose consistent acknowledgments in The Reeler.com have been as delightful as his faithful presence at our events.

Additionally, we praise these men for consistently showing respect to and demonstrating their appreciation for women who make films and for women who write about them. We thank them. We salute them. We want them to know we love them.

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists, a nonprofit international association of 41 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, was incorporated in 2006. Our mandate is to recognize, support and raise consciousness about women working in the film industry–in front of and behind the cameras, and writing about film and the film industry–through coverage on our Web site at www.awfj.org, the presentation of awards for outstanding achievements, and through outreach programs.

Jennifer Merin

Jennifer Merin is the Film Critic for Womens eNews and contributes the CINEMA CITIZEN blog for and is managing editor for Women on Film, the online magazine of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, of which she is President. She has served as a regular critic and film-related interviewer for The New York Press and About.com. She has written about entertainment for USA Today, The L.A. Times, US Magazine, Ms. Magazine, Endless Vacation Magazine, Daily News, New York Post, SoHo News and other publications.
After receiving her MFA from Tisch School of the Arts (Grad Acting), Jennifer performed at the O'Neill Theater Center's Playwrights Conference, Long Wharf Theater, American Place Theatre and LaMamma, where she worked with renown Japanese director, Shuji Terayama. She subsequently joined Terayama's theater company in Tokyo, where she also acted in films.
Her journalism career began when she was asked to write about Terayama for The Drama Review. She became a regular contributor to the Christian Science Monitor after writing an article about Marketta Kimbrell's Theater For The Forgotten, with which she was performing at the time. She was an O'Neill Theater Center National Critics' Institute Fellow, and then became the institute's Coordinator.
While teaching at the Universities of Wisconsin and Rhode Island, she wrote "A Directory of Festivals of Theater, Dance and Folklore Around the World," published by the International Theater Institute.
Denmark's Odin Teatret's director, Eugenio Barba, wrote his manifesto in the form of a letter to "Dear Jennifer Merin," which has been published around the world, in languages as diverse as Farsi and Romanian.
Jennifer's culturally-oriented travel column began in the LA Times in 1984, then moved to The Associated Press, LA Times Syndicate, Tribune Media, Creators Syndicate and (currently) Arcamax Publishing. She's been news writer/editor for ABC Radio Networks, on-air reporter for NBC, CBS Radio and, currently, for Westwood One's America In the Morning.
She is also a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association.
For her AWFJ archive, type "Jennifer Merin" in the Search Box (upper right corner of screen).